Anna (a pseudonym), aged 39, qualified for a legal termination under Polish law, but a woman needs a doctor to write a referral: “Many won’t,” she said, “either because they signed a conscience clause that they won’t perform abortions, or don’t want any trouble. There was a real chance of going one hospital to another, passing banners with chopped up foetuses on my way, hoping someone would take pity on me. Hoping that the nurses … Continued

Razem’s National Council has joined the Alliance of the Democratic Left and the Greens to work together in support of a political initiative for the liberalisation of abortion in the next parliamentary term.

Anti-choice organisations in Poland are becoming more and more visible in the public sphere with drastic images of dismembered fetuses to distort the truth about abortion. The Right to Life Foundation has been presenting its manipulative exhibition since 2005, but it was not until the elections in 2015 that they extended their scope of action. The Right to Life Foundation and the Life and Family Foundation were given a green light by the authorities to … Continued

This is a report conducted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Poland. Over the past three years, new attempts at further restricting women’s already very restrictive right to abortion, expanding the scope of the conscientious objection, and refusing to implement ECtHR rulings, have heightened to the point where it is currently almost impossible for women to undergo a legal and safe abortion in the country.

Why don’t gynaecologists in Poland engage socially and politically in activities that could lead to liberalization of the abortion law? What should happen for this situation to change? These questions were a starting point for formulating the objectives of a project implemented by the Foundation of Equality and Emancipation STER. This report, based on focus group discussions with medical students and residents, members of women’s organisations and groups, and practising doctors, is offered as a … Continued